Castro confirms feds conducting sweeping immigration raids in Texas

5:20 p.m. update: U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, has confirmed what many on social media throughout Texas have suspected: Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are conducting sweeping raids and arrests across the state.

“I have been informed by ICE that the agency’s San Antonio field office has launched a targeted operation in South and Central Texas as part of Operation Cross Check,” Castro said in a statement. “I am asking ICE to clarify whether these individuals are in fact dangerous, violent threats to our communities, and not people who are here peacefully raising families and contributing to our state. I will continue to monitor this situation.”

The Mexican Consulate in Austin has confirmed to the American-Statesman that 30 Mexican immigrants were detained by ICE on Friday and 14 were detained Thursday. By comparison, the Austin consulate had seen an average of four to five Mexican immigrants detained daily in recent years.

He appeared in front of reporters Friday afternoon and tried to set the record straight about an immigration arrest in North Austin earlier in the day that also resulted in two arrests by police officers.

Most read

He flatly denied comments circulating on social media that Austin police were assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who have been spotted making arrests across Austin.

“That is just not correct,” Manley said.

The chief said officers were present at the ICE arrest Friday morning because agents had called for backup, telling dispatchers that their suspect kept reaching for or touching an agent’s gun. Manley said his officers responded to a call for assistance, not to make an immigration arrest.

“It’s important that we don’t lose the trust we have worked so hard to build” with the immigrant community, he said.

Manley said he didn’t have details about the ICE case that resulted in the arrest, such as whether the man arrested had committed a crime., but he said ICE has full jurisdiction in the area and can conduct operations as needed. He said Austin police and ICE do regularly cooperate on joint task forces to find fugitives and criminals.

2 p.m. update: Austin interim police Chief Brian Manley said Friday that federal immigration officials have not informed them about any change in operations.

“I have not been made aware that anything is different,” Manley said.

He pointed out that because they have jurisdiction in the city, immigration authorities are not required to notify Austin police when they conduct operations locally.

He said officers were unaware of Friday morning’s operation until the department received calls that their assistance was needed.

1:30 p.m. update: The mother of two women arrested Friday after an altercation with a federal immigration agent in Northwest Austin said that the agent was not injured and that the incident has instilled fear among her family.

Teresa Velazquez said her son-in-law sustained cuts and bruises in the incident but was taken to an unknown location for possible deportation instead of a hospital. She was working Friday to secure the release of her daughters.

“There was no fight” with the agent, Velazquez said.

Activists and some local politicians are treating the altercation as confirmation of swirling rumors of increased U.S. Immigration and Customs operations in Austin.

Austin City Council Member Greg Casar said the Council will take emergency action next week to provide funding for legal assistance for the city’s immigrant community.

Casar called ICE actions “reprehensible” acts of “retribution” on Travis County from Gov. Greg Abbott, President Donald Trump “and their ilk” in response to a so-called ‘sanctuary’ policy enacted last week by the Travis County sheriff’s office.

While activists called the amount of ICE activity in Austin unprecedented, exact details have not been released. The agency on Friday only said that it conducts operations every day based on investigations.

“The problem is we don’t have these answers,” Council Member Delia Garza said. “There has been no statement by this public safety agency about what they are doing.”

“If it is legal, if it is lawful, let us know,” Garza said. “Its ripple effect has invited fear into this community.”

That fear led Velazquez to keep four of her grandchildren home from school on Friday and her family locked inside their home.

She told her husband to lock the door to their home and stay inside because “we have immigration sitting there, deporting anyone who wants to come over to my home,” Velasquez said.

Earlier: An immigration officer was treated at an emergency clinic for what officials say are minor injuries during an arrest in North Austin on Friday morning, according to officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“One ICE officer was injured in Austin, Texas, while he was arresting a criminal alien early in the morning of Feb. 10,” the agency said in a statement a few hours after the incident. “The officer was treated and released from a local hospital. No further information regarding this incident is releasable.”

Austin police Lt. Cara Boyd said the immigration officer pulled a vehicle over around 6 a.m. in the 13600 block of the U.S. 183 southbound service road between Anderson Mill Road and Lake Creek Parkway.

Boyd said the officer was trying to take a person into custody, but family members tried to intervene.

An Austin police supervisor said family members “got out of hand.”

Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services medics said they were called out to take a man to a freestanding emergency room for treatment.

Austin Council Member Greg Casar, who said his district has been affected by recent immigration arrests, said Friday that the ICE actions are “retaliation” against the city’s stance on immigrants.

“The community needs to know that we have confirmed a large amount of Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions in Austin in the last 24 hours, particularly in the North Lamar and Rundberg area,” Casar said in a statement. “I believe ICE is out in public arresting people in order to retaliate against our community for standing up for our values against people like (Texas Gov. Greg) Abbott and (President Donald) Trump.”

Casar also said the arrests were “beyond reprehensible” and “they instill fear in the community, and they make everyday people fear for their lives.”

“Undoubtedly, ICE officials will attempt to justify themselves by holding up the actions of a few people to imply that the all undocumented immigrants are criminals. This is disturbing and morally wrong,” he said.

A statement from ICE said the agency conducts operations across the nation on a daily basis, but does not conduct random “sweeps.” All ICE operations are based upon investigative leads, the agency said.